Love this show, that was a cute episode. I can't wait for my light novels and manga to arrive tomorrow! Will find out for myself shortly but from the synopsis it looks like the first two of eight novels have been covered so still lots of material left! After spending five episodes per arc so far I am not sure if they will cover one or two more arcs this season with the remaining 3+4 episodes. Easily enough material for a second season. If they put the last four episodes in OVA DVD(s) I will buy for sure!

Love this show, that was a cute episode. I can't wait for my light novels and manga to arrive tomorrow! Will find out for myself shortly but from the synopsis it looks like the first two of eight novels have been covered so still lots of material left! After spending five episodes per arc so far I am not sure if they will cover one or two more arcs this season with the remaining 3+4 episodes. Easily enough material for a second season. If they put the last four episodes in OVA DVD(s) I will buy for sure!

I agree. This is one of the few shows that I will have to order the original novels. It may be a struggle to work through them, but the story will make it worthwhile.

Love this show, that was a cute episode. I can't wait for my light novels and manga to arrive tomorrow! Will find out for myself shortly but from the synopsis it looks like the first two of eight novels have been covered so still lots of material left! After spending five episodes per arc so far I am not sure if they will cover one or two more arcs this season with the remaining 3+4 episodes. Easily enough material for a second season. If they put the last four episodes in OVA DVD(s) I will buy for sure!

I agree. This is one of the few shows that I will have to order the original novels. It may be a struggle to work through them, but the story will make it worthwhile.

Personally, the more I read the faster I get. I was proofreading some technical manuals this week and along with reading Manga it is really getting faster and better, many fewer needs to look up kanji. If I don't read much then I forget the characters...

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After the Random People and Random Wound light novels the next one is Random Past

This is the only show this season that I watch directly after it comes out. Humanity has Declined is just as good, but I'm not waiting for it like I am Kokoro. This should be fun. Hopefully the relationships won't be too hazy at the end of the season, but I guess there's a lot more material from the original work, so I won't count on it.

Me too. I can't seem to choose. Times like this I wish there was an extra male character.

Also, I think we all agree now that Heartseed can be a real troll, but is it just me or did anyone else think he kind of outdid himself this episode? I mean after all that buildup in the episode with that foreshadowing of that "steep cliff" earlier and then that re-possession of Iori and those few seconds of tension with Inaba running back thru the forest worrying....and then we find it was just "that" little fall.

Me too. I can't seem to choose. Times like this I wish there was an extra male character.

Also, I think we all agree now that Heartseed can be a real troll, but is it just me or did anyone else think he kind of outdid himself this episode? I mean after all that buildup in the episode with that foreshadowing of that "steep cliff" earlier and then that re-possession of Iori and those few seconds of tension with Inaba running back thru the forest worrying....and then we find it was just "that" little fall.

Seriously what did you guys think? Relief? Disappointment? What?

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Ok outside of "The Avengers" have you ever heard of the god Loki? The trickster god comes up in a lot of religions throughout the world varying in deviancy. Personally, that's what I think Heartseed is but with some larger unknown goal. So the way things happened made PERFECT sense to me. Mainly I think it was just to rile Inaban up and make her confront how much she truly cares about Taichi to a point where it is set in stone (since he pretty much made her confront that earlier but given Inaban's way of burying her feelings this was needed). She can always look back on that memory and realize how frantic she was at the thought of losing him without it being some cheap hospital scene since that had already been done. Just to see Inaban finally release all of those feelings of being tormented between her feelings and keeping the status quo with a really good cry was just ....... oddly beautiful I guess.

So I think I'll spoiler all of that and the people who have seen the most recent episodes can open it

Ok outside of "The Avengers" have you ever heard of the god Loki? The trickster god comes up in a lot of religions throughout the world varying in deviancy. Personally, that's what I think Heartseed is but with some larger unknown goal. So the way things happened made PERFECT sense to me. Mainly I think it was just to rile Inaban up and make her confront how much she truly cares about Taichi to a point where it is set in stone (since he pretty much made her confront that earlier but given Inaban's way of burying her feelings this was needed). She can always look back on that memory and realize how frantic she was at the thought of losing him without it being some cheap hospital scene since that had already been done. Just to see Inaban finally release all of those feelings of being tormented between her feelings and keeping the status quo with a really good cry was just ....... oddly beautiful I guess.

So I think I'll spoiler all of that and the people who have seen the most recent episodes can open it

Great points.

I know Heartseed is often treated as the villain here, but is it really?

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I like your comparison to Loki, but he tends to sow chaos. Coyote is a native American trickster god that sometimes tricks people for their own good. I think that's the important element here: Heartseed *is* helping these 5 friends. It's not doing it in a very nice way, but the result has been helpful.

I know Heartseed is often treated as the villain here, but is it really?

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I like your comparison to Loki, but he tends to sow chaos. Coyote is a native American trickster god that sometimes tricks people for their own good. I think that's the important element here: Heartseed *is* helping these 5 friends. It's not doing it in a very nice way, but the result has been helpful.

First off, thank you.

I agree with you on the Heartseed points but one thing is throwing me off ....

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When he caused Inori to jump off a bridge endangering her life. If the true goal is to make everyone closer together then why try and kill off one of the people?
I guess the "logical" explanation for that would be that he knew she was never going to die to begin with and wanted to hear everyones reaction to the confrontation of death since that is usually when people get the most truthful (for some reason). I tend to go with this explanation so now I'm 95% sure he has some ulterior helpful motives rather than getting his jollies off. Well that and the title which basically means "Heart Connect". Either way, I personally love the Heartseed character and can't wait to see what he is going to do next. Hell I pretty much enjoy all the characters in this anime which is kind of rare.
On a sidenote to this episode, I don't think Inoris rant towards Inaban was brought on by an unleashed desire. That was actually all Inori. Not sure why I feel that way but I do.
Second sidenote - Only in anime could a man like Taichi ever be considered selfish